Shadow Spirits
by Laryna6
Summary: DPYugioh crossover. Danny recieves a Duel Monsters deck from Vlad. Sam is also picking up the game. What do these cards have to do with the recent invasion of Amity Park? Continuation of a Versus 'Verses oneshot. For moonymonster. DS
1. Origin

Disclaimer: I own neither Danny Phantom nor Yu-gi-oh. Wish I did: don't. That's life.

If you like this check out the fic I'm co-authoring with moonymonster, called The Ultimate Hero. It's an AU of The Ultimate Enemy: what would have happened if Clockwork hadn't saved Danny's family?

This was written as part of Versus 'Versus, which is a series of oneshot crossovers. moonymonster asked me to continue this one: she's a friend, therefore I am. If you want any of the others continued, continue them yourself?

For those unfamiliar with Yu-gi-oh, monsters are really parts of people's souls and most of them live in the Shadow Realm, although you can steal the souls of living people. The Blue Eyes White Dragon contains the soul of Kisara. Yami is the ghost of Yugi's previous life and possesses Yugi when they duel.

The spirits in the cards have a connection to the duelist, and can decide if they want to help them out or not. If the monster likes you, you'll draw it exactly when it will do you the most good.

In the Doom Arc, Dartz was stealing the souls of duelists, who have more spiritual power than most people, to revive an ancient god/demon. He also summoned a bunch of monsters and let them loose all over the world.

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"I can't believe your parents brought us all tickets to the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix," Tucker gushed.

"Jazz talked them into it. It's for research." Danny grinned. Occasionally Jazz proved herself useful.

"Research on what? Kaiba Corporations solid hologram technology? I can't believe I'm going to get a chance to see the first ones of the new top-of-the-line dueling arenas!" Tucker hugged his PDA in joy.

"Do you even _play_, Tucker?" Sam rolled her eyes.

"It's nerd poker, Sam," Danny reminded her.

"It's not just for nerds! Look." She fished in her pocket and fished out a deck. "Fiend and Zombie deck. My parents actually paid for it. They brought me all these cute fluffy fairy cards that I sold on E-bay." She grinned. "All the rich kids are playing it now. Mom freaked when she saw me play Ouija Board."

"Whoa, back up. Your parents wanted you to play a magic card game? Didn't they say it was too occult?" Tucker asked.

"It is occult. Haven't you heard all the rumors?" Sam's eyes sparkled. "The game is supposed to be based on ancient Egyptian magic! How cool is that?"

Tucker snorted. "Oh come on Sam, that's just advertising."

"No it's, not. Industrial Illusions has denied the rumors, but that's just because they don't want to get the religious nuts any more against the game then they already are."

"Sam might be right," Danny spoke up. "That's why my parents are going to the tournament. There's a Professor Hopkins who is going to be there to watch his granddaughter duel. He's an expert on ancient mystic stuff, and when my parents, or mom really, asked to talk to him he said to come to the tournament to do it and gave us tickets."

"Hold on a minute. Hopkins? As in Rebecca Hopkins?"

"Is she famous?"

"Oh yeah, I modeled my deck after her old one, and after Bakura at Battle City. Shadow Ghoul kicks so much ass."

Tucker stepped back. "Sam? You're that enthusiastic about something? Has the world come to an end again?"

"It's a really cool game, Tucker. I bet you would love the Machine monsters."

"There are machines? I thought this was a magic game." He looked a little interested.

"There are all sorts of things. There are cards based on stuff from all over the world."

"Sam, it might be dangerous. Didn't you watch the news? All the people who went into comas recently were duelists. And there were those monsters appearing everywhere that the Fenton Thermos didn't work on?"

"At least the Ghost Shield worked." Tucker counted their blessings. "Technology wouldn't let us down."

"It's true a lot of those monsters were ones on the cards. So you need to check it out, Danny. You should learn to play, I'll buy you a deck," Sam offered.

"No thanks." Danny shook his head. "I learned my lesson with Technis, you're the gaming expert. If any weird stuff happens at the tournament, you can figure it out."

"You think something will happen?" Tucker asked. "It's not in Amity Park, and the ghosts usually stay here."

"I don't know. There's a lot of weird stuff going on with this game. And Vlad sent me _this_." Danny fished a deck out of pocket. "He gave me a note with it, too." He fished around more and dragged out a ratty piece of paper. "Since there's no way a fourteen-year-old like you would understand chess, learn this instead if you want me to continue to regard you as not totally worthless as an adversary," he read. "If Vlad wants me to learn it, no way." He shook his head violently. "This might be some plot to get me in a coma like all those people."

"He made you a deck?" Sam grinned. "You should totally show that to Jazz. A deck says a whole ton about your personality. If I help her figure out the cards, we could learn a lot."

"About what?" Danny looked at it dubiously.

"Danny?" Tucker looked a little alarmed. "It's not very cold today."

"What?" Danny looked at his breath. "My ghost sense is going off. Just barely." A thin trail of vapor hung in the air. "I think it's the cards. But why didn't they do this when they were in my pocket?"

"Some people believe that the monsters are real and the cards are a link to them. There's all this stuff about a 'Shadow Realm' on the forums." Sam looked excited. "That's why you have to go! This Shadow Realm might be the Ghost Zone."

Danny's eyes narrowed. "And if people can use these cards to bring monsters out of the Ghost Zone… I wonder if Industrial Illusions is a subdivision of the DALV Group."

Sam shook her head. "Maximillion Pegasus owns it. He's the creator of the game, and he always knows what move people are going to make next."

"Mind reading? Is that a ghost power?" Tucker asked. "I mean, you already possess people."

Danny shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out. You two are coming with me to the tournament and we'll see if there are any ghosts there." He looked at the deck. "And I'm going to give this to my parents so they can run tests on it." But his hand tightened around it. Maybe just looking at the cards wouldn't do any harm. Nothing had happened to Sam, after all. "It's one of Vlad's plots again, I just know it."

"Oh come on Danny, no harm in trying it out. I'll teach you how to play?"

He frowned, undecided, but since it was Sam asking, "Sure."

At the tournament, Sam lost all faith in Rebecca Hopkins when she played _cheerful _cards, Jack was escorted out of the park by security after shooting at the holograms, Tucker got to examine the cutting-edge holographic technology while Danny and Sam dueled, and Danny's ghost sense only went off a little, once when Seto Kaiba summoned the Blue Eyes and again while Yugi Motou was dueling Leon.

"Of course they've got strong connections to the cards, they're champions." Sam shrugged.

"I don't know. Did you see how Yugi looked different when the duel started?" Danny frowned. "Totally different from when he was sitting on the stage."

"I didn't notice anything," Sam said, looking at Tucker. "Did you?"

"Sam? Hello? Why would I look at the players when there were all those cool holograms?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Good point."

"Jazz went with our parents to meet with Professor Hopkins. She's going to tell me everything he says when they get back." Danny looked at the deck. "There is something ghostly about these. We're going to need to study it more."

"Wouldn't it be cool if you could summon Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer?" Sam grinned.

Danny nodded. "These cards are connected to spirits, and we're going to find out how."


	2. Mastery

Disclaimer: I own neither Yu-gi-oh or Danny Phantom.

I know I said I wasn't continuing any of the crossovers in V'V myself, but my friend moonymonster, who I am collaborating on the fic The Ultimate Hero (up under her account) requested this when I said I wanted to do gift-fics for my friends, therefore you all get this. I hope you enjoy.

There's a nod to moonymonster's other fandom in here.

-

Innocent little rectangles of cardboard. Ha.

Vlad Masters knew that nothing and no one was innocent. Some seemed like they were but it was either stupidity, like Jack, or denial, like young Daniel.

These cards weren't innocent. Not when they made the energy detectors in his lab go haywire. Whatever it was, it was ancient. Even his vultures hadn't a clue.

He'd discovered this after the fact. No, his first encounter with the cards had been when he was innocent about they fact they held powers.

As did their creator.

The rising businessman Vlad Masters had decided the new game company Industrial Illusions was ripe for the plucking. The game showed signs of being a smash hit and the owner was notoriously eccentric, even, some rumored, insane. No one would think anything of him handing over control of the company in exchange for a lump sum from the extremely persuasive Vlad Masters.

He'd been _smiling. _It had irked him. Even then, no one was ever ahead of him, and Pegasus had acted like he knew exactly what he was about to do. Was waiting for it.

So he'd made his move.

Darkness, blackness. It had hurt worse than the accident that gave him his powers, it felt like his very soul was in danger of being torn in two.

He'd been thrown out of Pegasus' body, slammed up against a wall, so exhausted he transformed back to human.

He'd woken up in the hospital. He hated hospitals. And Pegasus had had the gall to be sitting by his bedside with a get-well card and a hidden smirk.

Then he'd brushed his hair aside to reveal something else hidden. A golden eye.

Vlad had known instantly it was the cause of whatever had happened to him. He could feel an almost overwhelming darkness. Foolishness. There was nothing to fear in the darkness. There wasn't anything he couldn't defeat.

Except for Pegasus.

Research had revealed that the last photograph of Pegasus that didn't have his hair brushed over the once-normal eye had been taken before he arrived in Egypt on a world tour he had taken after the death of his wife.

Vlad had gone to Egypt seeking answers. He'd found the legend of the Millennium Items and a ghost called Shadi.

Gather the seven Items and any wish would be granted? Ultimate power?

But Pegasus was also after the Items. And made an appointment with him. They'd struck a deal: Vlad would not pursue the Items and Pegasus would not reveal he was half ghost.

Now, with the Ring of Rage locked in the Coffin of Forever Sleep with Pariah Dark, Vlad had decided to focus more of his attention on that option. Industrial Illusions had grown.

And Pegasus' eye was a gaping hole. Vlad had looked forward to confirming that the Eye had been his defense by overshadowing him. No one got the better of Vlad Plasmius. Not forever.

Only someone else had put Pegasus in a coma first. Not only him, others who played this game. Monsters started appearing all over the globe.

The monsters were real. These cards held power. Power he would master.

The game wasn't chess, but he needed someone to hone his skills against. It was the masters of the game who had wielded magic in ancient Egypt.

Also, he'd given up on Daniel and chess. He'd hoped his wisecracks mocking Daniel's lack of chess skills would inspire him to take up the game in self-defense but he had shown no signs of doing so.

This game was popular with the kids and with the pictures was certainly more flashy. It wasn't a video game like Doomed but there was strategy to it.

If Daniel wouldn't come to him to be taught he would have to manipulate him into studying on his own. It was working well so far. When Daniel finally joined him he would progress much faster, however.

He should never have considered the clones. He would have needed to start from scratch even with the perfect clone. Training Danielle in the basics had almost driven him mad. Waste all his work on Daniel? No.

As soon as he eroded his trust in Jack he would see the light. Even the ecto-acne had showcased Jack's incompetence. Still, Daniel was loyal.

That loyalty meant he would be loyal to Vlad once Vlad won him over.

He'd given him cards, and suggested to the Manson girls' parents at a dinner party that their daughter might enjoy the game. With his crush playing Daniel would certainly learn to keep her happy. Ah, young love.

Daniel had better make a move soon, or else some idiot like Jack might steal the love of his life away. Of course, Daniel would hardly listen to him if he tried to give him advice on his love life. This was a job for reverse psychology.

Skulker was working on infusing ghost energy into Kaiba Corporations's hologram technology. Soon, Vlad would be able to play for real.

He'd added 'feed him to a Man-Eater Bug' to his list of possible ways to kill Jack Fenton. It had looked very promising when he'd tested it out on the Jack.exe program.

Jack.exe had won over Maddie.exe and then been destroyed. At least he'd gotten a good omen out of that whole fiasco.

Vlad's hands had been idly shuffling while he considered his options. He cut the deck and then drew a card.

Vampire Lord.

He frowned and started to shuffle again. That couldn't be right. He'd just drawn that the last time he'd played against himself. It had been in his first hand, maybe even the first he drew.

He'd heard the rumors about the 'heart of the cards,' and he'd built both himself and Daniel the most… appropriate decks money could buy, but surely…

He cut the deck several times.

Drew.

Vampire Lord.

Well now. This was interesting.

Vlad wondered idly if his other little pawn would like a deck. A present from him would further cement her loyalty.


	3. Doom

Disclaimer: I don't own either Yu-gi-oh or Danny Phantom. You can tell by the way this is fanfiction instead of an episode.

-

That morning, Danny had awoken rudely. Someone had been shaking him. He'd jerked, trying to get free, slamming his head up against the headboard of his bed. "What the… Jazz?" He blinked.

"Danny, you have to get out there. There are monsters all over town. Mom and Dad put up the ghost shield right away to cover as much of the town as it can and then headed out."

"The ghost shield's up? Then why did they go outside it?"

"It can only cover so much and they're trying to get people in under cover. A lot of people are still sleeping in their houses. Danny, you have to go out there! The monsters are tearing down buildings! If there are people in those buildings…" she shuddered.

"I'm on it, Jazz."

She handed him a Fenton Thermos. "Mr. Gray is handling the ops center, like the last time we were invaded. He made me show him how to work some things, since Mom and Dad aren't here, that's why it took so long for me to come up here and wake you up."

"You know how the stuff works?"

"Well, I am a Fenton, aren't I? You know how Dad blathers on." She laughed seriously, then was serious again. "Be careful out there, little brother."

"I will, Jazz," he assured her, then stood up in his bed. "Going ghost!" he cried and the white rings she'd first seen what seemed like so long ago formed around him.

Danny Phantom dived through the wall.

She went to the window to wave goodbye, then headed back downstairs. She knew how to work the ghost fighting gear. She hadn't been much help to Danny before, but she'd been practicing.

That simulation helmet really was a great workout. She'd never been in such good shape.

Once again, she was wearing a blue hazmat suit. Must be the end of the world.

She sobered. She shouldn't even think such a thing.

She headed for the door, saw Valerie and froze. The two of them stared at each other like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"I wasn't trying to sneak out!" Valerie said quickly.

Mr. Gray had asked Jazz to watch Valerie and Danny. Jazz thought quickly. If she stayed here, she could tell him they had gone back to bed. She was almost an adult, he would trust her.

If he called up to find here gone too, then not only would Valerie be in trouble but Danny would too. Jazz could tell them Danny had been fighting ghosts with her…

Valerie was a ghost hunter too, she'd found out from Danny's files. A very good one, with a ghostly-powered suit.

"Why are you in a hazmat suit?" Valerie asked wonderingly. If Jazz had been trying to sneak out too, Valerie was obviously hoping she could blackmail Jazz into not saying she had left. Jazz's parents had ordered here to stay here.

Jazz laughed nervously. "Uh, nevermind." Now that Valerie had been caught, she might wait before trying to sneak out again. She was needed out there. "Go. I'll cover for you. Danny will help."

Valerie tried to look innocent. "Go? Outside? Are you crazy? There are ghosts out there?"

"You're the red ghost hunter. Now hurry and help my parents find people and bring them inside the safety of the ghost shield!" Jazz ordered and pointed to the door.

"How do you know that?" Valerie asked suspiciously.

Think fast. "I was coming to when Danny Phantom ripped off your mask. Now hurry up! I'll cover for you."

"Thank you!" Valerie wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She ran out the door and Jazz heard her fly off.

Now to change out of this gear before…. "Jazz?" she heard a shout from the opps center.

"Yes?" she called down the stairs, peeling the hazmat suit off from over her clothes.

"Can you turn on the television and tell me what the reporters on Ghost Watch are saying? I can't get any readings even after you showed me how to get at the detection system!"

He couldn't detect any ghosts? "Sure! I'll listen and then come down and help you! I already put Valerie back to bed in my room!" It was… 3:04 am now.

She finished removing the suit and stashed it under a couch cushion before going to turn on the TV in the kitchen.

"This is Tiffany Snow with action news and this is the Ghost Emergency Broadcast System. Two hours have now passed since the mysterious monsters appeared. The Fenton Ghost Shield covers much of our town, but the monsters are still rampaging outside of it. With more on that, we go to Lance Thunder."

The scene shifted to Lance standing with the edge of the ghost shield behind him. "Tiffany, people are waking up and running for the shelter of the Ghost Dome, including this reporter. As you can see behind me, there are monsters destroying homes and buildings. Back to you, Tiffany."

"Strangely, Amity Park is _not_ the only town suffering attacks by these monsters! They are appearing and causing destruction all throughout the world! According to a source in Japan, Kaiba Corporation, the creator of holographic technology, is thought to be held responsible for this, although the CEO, Seto Kaiba, has denied the allegations. So, for once, this isn't the fault of Jack Fenton and his ghost portal."

Jazz felt outraged on behalf of her father for a second, but had to admit it was true.

Lance continued. "The Fentons are outside the safety of the dome in the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle, trying to awaken the citizens still outside. They have been joined by Danny Phantom, the ghost who many consider a hero since he is believed to have saved the town during the last invasion."

Tiffany broke in, excited. "We go now to our eye in the sky, who has found Danny Phantom and is filming him live!"

The scene changed to a picture distorted by distance and tinted green by the ghost shield. It was Danny, blasting monsters left and right. Strangely, they seemed to be just disappearing instead of being sucked into the Thermos.

Jazz hoped her little brother would be careful. A blast just missed him.

"It looks like Danny Phantom has been joined by the mysterious Pink Ranger."

Jazz cringed. Pink Ranger? That was almost as bad as Inviso-Bill. And wasn't it copyrighted?

"Jazz! I could use some help!"

"Coming!" She raced downstairs to the lab.


	4. Ragnorak

Disclaimer: I own neither Yu-gi-oh nor Danny Phantom.

And here is part three of the gift fic for my friend. Hope you like it, moonymonster.

While 'Bakura' and Atem are playing the ultimate dark game, 'Bakura' reveals disasters are happening all over the world due to Zork breaking loose.

-

"I just don't understand it!" Maddie sighed in frustration. "These readings are absolutely insane."

"We know that ghosts are causing this storm. We have to find them and tear them apart, molecule by molecule!" Jack grabbed a weapon.

"But what ghost could be this powerful? Fires, floods, storms," all of Amity Park had needed to find high ground. Half of Danny's class was sharing the emergency ops center with them.

"Maybe it's the ghost that took us into the Ghost Zone a few months ago?" Mr. Gray suggested.

"But didn't Danny Phantom defeat him?" Jazz reminded them.

"_If_ he did," Valerie sneered.

"If he didn't destroy him permanently he could just come back, Damon. And we've seen Danny Phantom fighting the same ghost several times. He doesn't kill the ghosts he fights." Maddie shook her head.

"_If_ they're fighting and not just playing around."

Damon looked quellingly at Valerie.

"Damon," Maddie ordered, "You stay here and watch over the kids. If you have to, the emergency ops center can become a blimp."

"With my face on it!" Jack said cheerfully.

Maddie and Damon ignored him. "We're going to take the Specter Speeder and the Fenton Family Assualt Vehicle and see if there are any people caught in the flood because their roof weren't high enough."

Damon nodded. "I'll make sure they're all safe, Mrs. Fenton."

"Please, call me Maddie. This is the second time we've worked together like this." She held out her hand.

Damon shook it. "Only if you'll call me Damon."

"We'll head out then," Maddie replied, then headed down, dragging Jack after her. Jack's hands were holding a slice of the pizza a speedboat had delivered.

Valerie pleaded with Damon, their voices hushed but still loud enough for Danny to hear them. "Please, Dad! There are people in trouble out there."

"I don't want you out in this storm! You could get hit by lightening or slam into a building in this fog!" Outside the windows the only light that cut through the darkness were the occasional flashes of lightening.

"Dad, I'm fourteen! I was ghost hunting for weeks before the ghost kid revealed me, you know that! If my new suit protects me against ecto-blasts like when the ghost kid tried to kill me in space-"

"He tried to kill you!" Mr. Gray's eyes narrowed.

"That doesn't matter! Point is, people might be drowning out there! Do you want people to die because you don't trust me to look after myself!" Valerie stared him down.

He put a hand on her arm. "I don't want _you_ to die. I promised your mother I would look after you.":

"Dad, I have to do this."

"No, you don't have to! If I ever find out who gave you that first suit.. and a ghost gave you this one! Shouldn't you get rid of it?" he pleaded with her. "I know the tests came back negative, but it could still be doing something to you!"

Valerie shook her head. "I don't care! If not me, who's going to stop those ghosts? Dad, I'm going out there whether you want me to or not. I just… wanted you to wish me luck."

"You're not going out there." He shook his head.

"Oh yeah? How do you think you're going to stop me? And don't threaten me with grounding. Hanging out with Paulina isn't worth people _dying, _Dad." Valerie didn't budge.

"…be careful." Damon hugged his daughter, who smiled.

"Thanks, Dad." She headed down the stairs too, out of sight.

Jazz had crept away from her workstation while Mr. Gray was distracted. "Danny," she whispered, and elbowed him.

"Yeah?"

"Follow my lead. Mr. Gray?"

"Yes, Jazz?" He turned to them, suddenly looking older.

"The lab can seal itself up, so we don't need to worry about it being flooded, but I'm going to have Danny go down there so if anything happens he can handle it."

"Anything like what?" Mr. Gray clearly didn't want another child to go into danger.

"Some of the equipment's a little delicate. I'll set up the ghost shield and make sure nothing comes through the portal. Don't worry, Mr. Gray." Danny smiled.

He sighed. "Well, if you're sure about this, Jazz."

Jazz nodded. "He'll be perfectly fine. I'll check in on him every once in a while, right Danny?"

So he would need to take his cell phone with him. "Right, Jazz. I'll get down there and seal it up right now." He followed Valerie out of sight.

He did go down to the lab and seal it. Mom had told Dad to seal it and he'd told Danny to, so technically he was doing what he was told.

He hadn't been told to cry, "Going ghost!" and slip through the walls.

He could feel the power in this storm, even if his ghost sense… now his ghost sense went off. He whirled around. "Plasmius!" His hands started to glow.

'Calm down, Daniel. Where's your mother?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"So she's out here, like you, flying around. How stupidly heroic of you both."

"How did you know that?"

Plasmius sighed and shook his head. "Daniel, Daniel… you just confirmed it for me." He turned to go.

"Wait! What are you doing here?"

"Making sure the love of my life doesn't get killed! This is no natural storm, Daniel, and it's only going to get worse. The old ghost I talked to was blabbering about a combat of the gods and the end of the world."

"The end of the world?" Danny gulped.

"I suppose my other pawn is also flying around out here." Plasmius scanned the skies and duplicated himself. Three headed off in different directions, the other remained with Daniel.

So Plasmius didn't want Mom to die. He would keep an eye on the Specter Speeder, probably invisibly.

Plasmius was one crazed-up fruit loop, but this was serious. "Truce?"

"Of course. I have other things to worry about, and so do you." Plasmius disappeared in a whirl of smoke.

Danny picked a direction and flew off, scanning the buildings. There were some boats already out there, Amity Park was on the Pacific Coast.

This was worse than Katrina. All over the world, too.

Plasmius was right, they had bigger problems.


	5. Doorway

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh. There. You happy?

This occurs right after the Ceremonial Battle at the end of Yu-gi-oh, when the door to the afterlife opens and the Items are destroyed.

-

Danny bolted upright in bed. The alarms were sounding.

This didn't sound like the Ecto-Exodus alarm and it definitely wasn't the "Ghost Sheild Non-Operational" that had kept playing over and over back when Youngblood had stolen the ghost shield generator.

He heard his father thumping down the stairs as he opened the door to his room and ran after them.

Mom was already there. "These readings… they can't be right."

"What can't be right, Mom?" Danny squeezed between Mom and Dad to look at the readings on the screen. He hadn't seen anything like this before.

"It's as though the barrier between our world and the Ghost Zone has been destroyed!" Maddie was pressing buttons and the display altered, still making no sense to Danny. "This might be worse than the last invasion! At least they all had to come through the portal at first and our defenses destroyed a lot of them!"

Dad looked grim. Danny, looking up at him, realized he had never seen him like this. "I'll go to the Emergency Ops Center! We're going to need the big guns for this!" The thought of that cheered him up and he thumped up the stairs as Jazz came running down.

"This had better not be a false alarm, Mom! I have a test tomorrow!" Jazz was glaring.

"Jazz, honey, you still have the Fenton Peeler, right? Go get it and put it on. Then take Danny to the weapons vault and join your Father in the Ops Center." Mom's voice was determinedly calm. It reminded Jazz of how Mom had announced the fact Jazz was going to be serving tea and cookies that time the whole town had been dragged into the Ghost Zone. Determined normalcy.

"Right Mom." How did Mom know she had the Fenton Peeler? Jazz dragged Danny away. "Come on, little brother."

She dragged him to the weapons vault, checked there was a handle on the inside, and shut it behind them. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure. The barrier between the Ghost Zone and Earth has disappeared somehow! There could be all kinds of ghosts coming through! Jazz, cover me, I have to get out there!"

Jazz nodded. "I'll say you took the Peeler and went to go find Sam so you could protect her.

Danny nodded. He would still get in trouble for that, but what else was new? "Thanks, Jazz."

"Anytime, little brother."

Danny flew outside. The house's ghost shield wasn't up? He looked at the sky. No, it was up. And just like when Pariah Dark had invaded, it was spreading to cover the whole town.

"Going ghost!" He flew up and looked around. There was Skulker… inside the Ghost Shield. Technis. Spectra. The Box Ghost. They were all popping into sight.

If they could come through without portals, then what was Danny going to do? Tossing them into the Fenton Portal wouldn't even get rid of them temporarily, they'd just come right back!

He didn't want to become a killer. Not even Spectra, who had tried to kill Jazz and the other students, deserved to die permanently. His parents might be willing to shred ghosts molecule by molecule so nothing remained, but he knew ghost were people. Well, at least he was a person.

Oh no. They'd seen him. Here went nothing. He flew up. Maybe this was some disaster, like Pariah Dark's escape? Maybe they would be willing to work with him again to solve it?

Blasts from both Ember and Desiree hit him at once. Or they would take the time to beat him up, just like when they had first fled from Pariah Dark.

Valerie!

Technis saw her too. He blasted her and her suit disappeared. She screamed as she started to fall.

Danny phased through Skulker's missile, flying as fast as he could towards her. He became solid long enough to catch her before becoming intangible again and flying off with her.

"Let me down, ghost!" She hit him although he didn't feel anything since they were both intangible.

"Shh, they'll hear us!" He was going to have to become visible again sometime. "Skulker's a hunter!"

That shut her up. He flew her to her new home, when her father had gotten the job at Axion Labs they'd been able to move out of the apartments. He carefully put her down on the ground as her father burst into the room. "Valerie!"

"I'm okay, Dad!"

"Damon." Man, it was cool to call adults by their first names, even if Damon wasn't _his_ father. "The Fentons are going to need your help. The barrier between the Ghost Zone and the human world has collapsed."

"What did you do to Valerie!"

Valerie was trying to push herself up off the ground. "Nothing, it's the suit Technis gave her. He blasted her and must have deactivated it." Vlad's gloves had been able to take the medallion out of him and Wulf had ripped those ghosts out of people: could he pull the suit out of Valerie? He reached inside her and felt around.

"Get your dirty hands out of me, ghost!"

"It's for your own good!" There! He pulled the pink and black wad of ectoplasm out of her.

"What did you just do?" Damon had pulled an ecto-gun off the wall.

"I took away her suit."

"Curse you, Danny Phantom!" Valerie hit him.

"He really did weaken you. That hit was like a girl, not a ninth-degree blackbelt."

"How do you know I'm a ninth-degree blackbelt! Quit stalking me!"

Oops. "I'm not stalking you!" He backed away. "You should both head for FentonWorks."

"There you two are!" Skulker phased through the door. Mr. Gray blasted him back through it.

Danny said something his Mom would have not approved of under his breath and grabbed the Grays, making them invisible and intangible.

What? The ghost shield wasn't over the town anymore. His parents must have figured out the ghosts were in there with them. Instead, it was protecting the house. Danny left the Grays as the edge of the Ghost Sheild. "Get inside!" Mr. Gray dragged Valerie with him.

The alarm wasn't sounding anymore.

His cell phone rang. He hid, turned back to Danny Fenton and answered it. "Sam?"

"Jazz called. She said the barrier is back up and your parents don't know you've been gone."

Danny looked out of the alley to see the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle speed past. They must be heading out to catch the ghosts. "Do they know what caused it?"

"No." He could hear Sam shake her head.

So it could happen again. "I didn't grab a Fenton Thermos. Could you call Tucker and meet me at the park?" He looked up in the sky and saw Desiree. "We've got a _lot_ of ghosts to catch."


End file.
